Dobri

Hi Jana, the tar road to Fouriesburg is very good quality, has a nice shoulder all the way, no potholes and not very busy, rolling hills but hit it early morning, and then with the sun behind you stop to enjoy few views, they are breathtakingly beautiful. If you have a gravel bike taking the detour to Destiny Castle is worth the time, stunning place, but book in advance. The road into Golden gate is good quality but has no shoulder, taxis and locals are respectful of cyclist but GP okes driving big 4x4 with SDS are not and you need to very careful. Gets very busy on weekends. There is a few hard climbs. In my view the area is best enjoyed on a gravel bike, or MTB, I have few gravel routes I can share, please DM me or check my Strava.

Hi guys, I have two solo tickets for B&B The Descent next weekend with self drive / shuttle ticket available for sale, including accommodation at a two bedroom lodge 2,5km from Emseni camp. Please DM me if interested.

Hi Gav, thank you for plotting a fantastic 43km route, however, some suggestions for next year to avoid the havoc experienced over the last weekend: 1. Perhaps charge R100 more per entry and have separate running and MTB boards? Maybe even have a runner on the actual board if colour options are limited to avoid any confusion. One purple board used for the 21km trail run on Saturday and not corrected for the MTB event casused all the problems on Sunday. 2. Maybe some youngster can ride the route on a motorbike early morning to check the markings? 3. Have the fun MTB family rides on the Saturday and the Nationals on Sunday? 4. And if the above is not possible, at least please try not to share the route used for a National event with fun riders. There are lot of options around KCC to plot a 20km fun route and not share it with the riders racing. Having to share the single track towards the end through the forest and next to the river asking at least 30-40 families with kids to move to the side was not fun for me but more importantly not fun and not fair for the parents and small kids that most probaly took part for the first time in a MTB race. Those kids might reconsider the fun effect next time dad says lets go racing. Otherwise well done to the team, everything else was superb and I will support all your events as I enjoy coming down to Karkloof and riding around - lots of fun.

Hi Gav, how do I download the routes without opening an account and giving them my credit card details? Nothing on KCC website.

I have also bought a lot from Temu, took 3 orders to get the right shorts as I like the padding very thin and agree, Lameda is excellent quality so far, should last as long as Assos or Ciovita did. Glasses with myopic lenses is a winner. MTB shoes I found weird fit, I'll avoid in future, cleats slightly to big and didn't fit properly in the SPD pedals so I will also avoid this in future. Gloves and especially winter gloves are good quality. Refund / exchange process was flawless so far. But I made a mistake and ordered from Ali Express last time - nightmare - I will strongly advise to avoid them. One set of shorts completely wrong size on the website, I send photos of the advertised product, my waist, other shorts I have etc. - no luck, they refused to refund so I donated them. Second set of shorts - the seller stated wrong item description - gloves instead of shorts, customs cannot clear them due to wrong value and description, it has been 2 months and still arguing about the refund even though I provided all the evidence and they have been shipped back to China.

Very nice, but that's bit ageist Fine, I'll buy my own "Karkloof Gravel branded garment and a decent steak roll at the finish line" ! 😉

Yip, a MTB with drop bars is classified as a gravel bike. I took part at the Berg 100 last weekend and one lady showed up with an S-Works Epic World Cup LTD that her husband converted to a gravel bike by replacing the flat MTB bars with drop bars - no comment from the CSA commissioner. It is the most beautiful bike I have ever seen.

I know the area well, the trails around the Falls is not tame (or less technical) but are easily handled on a MTB, on a gravel bike a very different story. There is lot of options around Karkloof and no reason at all to use any single trails, use the jeep track and farm roads if needed be, why not make it pure gravel - why make a GravDuro event, makes no sense to me.

Silly question - why? It's a gravel race - why include single track? Single track should be for a MTB race only.

That's the Berg and Bush weekend, eish, it's not really same style or type of event but still, why clash with an already established date from long time ago, and forcing riders to choose between the two. I would like to take part but B&B takes precedence.

I've sent you a DM.

I was considering buying it but then decided to first try the cheaper version of it from Temu, it does make the ride little bit smoother but it was useless on heavy corrugation so I'm glad I did not spend R6k on the Redshift version.

This is great news especially that solo entries are allowed and I will most seriously consider entering, however, one possible huge obstacle to my entry is the gravel bike only condition. I do have one, love riding it, 1 or 2 days in a row, maybe with a push 3rd day too but being well over 50 riding my gravel bike 7 days in a row over corrugated roads will not end up nice irrespective of the amount of training. It is the lower back, neck, shoulders that will be the problem, not the legs. I would suggest that those chasing the overall or age category podium and prizes should be gravel bike only, rest can race on MTB's. I like to race but I also do not want to end up in hospital or at the chiropractor for few days afterwards.

Did you order cycling shoes? If yes how do they fit? Any comments? Cycling shoes in SA are ridiculously expensive lately.

What an awesome adventure, thank you for sharing.